Since there is a river running right thru the middle of town, it's always been easy to go fishing. There's a dam just before the bridge, and that was a good place to go, just below it. Went down there one day, sitting on the rocks on the side, and there were 4 or 5 men sitting in chairs on the dam. I preferred the side, so,,, baited up with worms I think, cast out and wham,,,had something. Worked with that line, all the men watching,,and pulled out a small gar. Somehow my hook got him, cause most of the time, you lost them. Now, all the men were staring, kinda laughing, wanting to see what I did with it. I just opened my tackle box, got my needle nosed pliers out, pulled my hook out and tossed that gar behind me, rebaited and waited for the next bite. Found out later that gar were super good eating, well, that back strip. Needed to be bigger than that one, tho.
Was going fishing in our river from age 6, when we moved here from up close to Paris, TX. Also, had to bait your own hook, clean your own fish. So handling fish was never any problem for me.
There's a lot of good memories there. My Dad would call, say,,, let's go fishing,,and off we'd go. We never caught much of anything, but still loved it. Mom, the small kids, and I, went out to a stocked tank one time, and when we left Dad made the comment he'd clean everything we caught,,,kinda laughing. We quit after we had caught so many, while we could still pay for them,,,lol. Well, Dad kept his word,,,,while WE got to laugh. Lost my wedding ring that day, and went back 2 or 3 times, looking, and never found it. Took a metal detector once. I think it went into the pond, and a fish ate it, and we did look good in the ones we brought home. It had gotten loose after I had lost some weight, and would fall off sometimes.
When we moved to a house at the edge of the city limits, 1/2 block from the river, he brought my son a rooster and 3 hens. There was a pen behind the garage already. I or the kids, fed them thru a window of the garage, onto a big piece of plywood laying there. My Dad volunteered to dig the worms to go fishing, one day, so here he went, into that chicken pen. I lifted the plywood, and watched him make a dig with a spade fork. lolololol..... He picked worms out of the dig til he was worn out, had to sit down and rest,,,before he did the next dig. lolololol.... Same thing. By that time that coffee can was 1/2 full of worms!! Now, that's a TRUE worm story. lmaooo.
Still miss him. By the time the above was going on, he had had 3 heart attacks, and was on disability. Our kids, theirs and mine, were in school, and I didn't work full time. We had a lot of time together. Yeah, I was a Daddy's girl.
We are now just above freezing, since late Friday. And I need to get up, shower, and do a load a laundry.
Soo, yall tc, and
HAGD
